If approved at a future board meeting, the goals will be used to evaluate Witherspoon next year.

The goals are:

Increase the graduation rate by 5 percent. Currently, five of the district's seven high schools have a graduation rate of less than 60 percent; the district's average is 57 percent.

Implement a grouping model for middle school students as a discipline alternative to long term suspension to reduce the loss of instruction resulting in an over-aged middle school population. Currently, the only alternative for discipline for middle school students is suspension or assignment to the alternative school, and neither has proven successful when dealing with academic or behavioral needs.

Implement alternative service delivery model for targeted special education students that meets their instructional needs in an effective and efficient manner. Currently, students with moderate to severe emotional or behavior needs are limited in the ways they are taught. Other models will be developed.

Expand the number of pre-kindergarten classes by two. Birmingham city schools currently have 17 pre-k classrooms.

Board member Virginia Volker said she hopes pre-k is expanded beyond the two additional classrooms.

"Zip codes should not determine a child's education," she said.

Board member Phyllis Wyne said that since Birmingham has 18 schools identified by the state as "priority" schools - meaning they have posted consistently low test scores or have low graduation rates - moving schools off that list should be a goal.

Witherspoon explained that five of the schools on the list are high schools with low graduation rates, and that increasing the rates are among his goals.